łThere are several notable differences that Poles eagering to learn Ukrainian must not forget about.

Such as:

* There are sounds in Ukrainian that do not exist in Polish at all, although they are normal logical Slavic sounds, in general.Poles used to take the softened c (=ts,tz) as ć=ci, softened z as ź, softened s as ś=si. In Ukrainian there are just c’, z’, s’ alongside ć, ź and ś. These are absolutely separate sounds there. To learn Ukrainian pronunciation one has to learn how to pronunciate the softened c, z and s properly.

* In fact, cz(=tsz) is always hard in Ukrainian - i.e., always quite cz, not ć(=ci). Put before i it obtains some softeness, but not the complete one. So, formally, there is no Polish sound ć=ci in Ukrainian.

* Neither of the Polish sounds l or ł has any 100% Ukrainian equivalent. Ukrainian l is somewhat in between Polish l and ł, Ukrainian softened sound of l is probably a bit more softer than Polish l.

* There are different affixes in Ukrainian, which is obvious. For Ukrainians "Polska" is not a noun, it is rather an adjective that means "Polish (fem. sing.)". Well, it must be pronunciated pOl’s’ka in Ukrainian, to be correct.

Ukrainians take "poeta" or "rowerysta" as the words of the feminine gender because of the ending a. These words sound strange for them, because the terms for the occupations are used to be presented in the masculine gender, usually, of course.

* In Ukrainian Polish nasal ą and ę are certainly absent. The good news is that there’s the vocative case, too. No articles, as well.

* In Ukrainian the tongue twisters of the extra dense consonant clusters are hard (though not impossible) to find... Most of the Ukrainian words tend to dissolve the Russian and Polish consonant clusters with the vowels.

And please, never use the words "matka" (that means "womb" in Russian and Ukrainian) and especially "ssaki" (moderately brutal Russian word for rejected urine and possibly feces) there... Also remember that the word "wieloryb" may evoke much fun in the Russian-speaking spheres. Rower (bicycle) is wielosipiEd in Russian, welosypEd in Ukrainian - most probably, people will take this word as a pun upon "a fish on a bicycle". Or "a fish with a bicycle". Or a fish-bicycle.

Not to mention samochOd which is associated with the heavy military machines.

Colloquially one sometimes hears that Ukrainian is half Russian, half Polish. Seriously though, is there any difference between the Ukrainian spoken in the east and the west? Is the Lvïv version more influenced by Polish and the Kyïv region one closer to Russian.? Are there any vocabulary differences? Can you give a few examples. In Kraków, for insatnce, people say na polu and elsewhere na dworze to mean outdoors. They also don't pronounce the trz sound and say: ile jest czy razy czy?

Ukrainian will add you approx. 15% more in understanding Polish in comparison to Russian.In fact quite many Polish words sound even more similar to Russian than to Ukrainian even ifthey have common roots on all three languages. So knowing both Russian and Ukrainian youwill be able to understand 70-75% of Polish. But basic and older vocabulary is much easier tounderstand. Still there is many differences. Such as 1) different stresses. 2)Polish has set of soundswhich are absent in other Slavic languages. 3) Majority of sounds are pronounced slightly different.4) Polish got an articles while Russian and Ukrainian do not. 5) Suffixes and endings in cases are oftendifferent though sometimes they are similar. 6) Sentence construction could differ sometimes.In general Ukrainian would not be able to understand most of Polish without preparation.

I still can't see anything that backs this up "Polish is 80% Russian if we compare basic and older vocabulary"

Even without knowledge of these two languages it is something quite easy to conclude because if Polish similarto Russian 60% on average and they descended from common origin it is quite logically to conclude that older wordsshould be more similar on average than those invented later or borrowed from some third languages. Older vocabularyfor example includes personal pronounces, names of animals and plants, body parts, most common verbs, simpletools names, etc.

Russian and Ukrianian lack nasal vowels such as ą and (rarely heard but always written) ę.BTW have you got hands-on epxeirnece with the Ukrainian street scene? How does a Russian-speaking Kyivian react to the sound of the Ukrainian tongue -- indifferently, with interest or does it strike him as a peasant dialect. Some Wielkorusy look down on Ukrainian and and Belarusian regarding them as dialects of Russian used by mużiki.

So if Croatian is 65% similar to Russian then if we compare basic and older vocabulary they are about 85% similar, is that right?

How older vocabulary could be 85% similar if entire vocabulary is NOT 65% similar? I do not know Croatian deeply, but from whatI encountered I doubt it is more similar to Russian than Polish. Probably even less. Though people say that Croatian is slightly closer toRussian than Serbian.

well ofcourse! none of those coutries boarder with mighty Germany so why would you want them to be similar to Russian :-)))

Mighty Germany? Laughable. This is pathetic disappearing ethnicity, not even their woman want to have any children.My mind about different languages similarity is based on pure objectivity rather than emotions. For example the richest per capita Slavic countryis Slovenia but I do NOT claim that their language is closer to Russian than Polish or even Serbian or Bulgarian.Though there some interesting similarities. For example:English - Slovenian - Russian

Principally ethnic Germans are not pathetic beside their fertility qualities. I think they did certain achievements in many fields andtheir cities are or at least were example of how people should to care about cleanness and order. I like German architecture andcity planning. Their classical music and opera are also very famous. Germans are known for their work ethics. But what relationdoes Germany has to comparison between Slavic languages. Czech rep. also borders Germany but I do not claim Czech languagemore similar to Russian than Polish or Serbian. Principally, many opinions about nations is based on stereotypes. Even though I'mUkrainian (who are Russians in Western eyes) I practically do not drink vodka, and would claim myself practically uncorrupted.I'm not engaged in drunken debauches either.

In Russian there is also a word "szkura" which stands for thick animal skin. But sometimes could apply to humans as well.Other archaic Russian word is molwit' which is the same in meaning to Polish mówić.Szukać and handlowiec are German borrowings from "suche" and "handel".

Those are not infinitives, are they?

If you ask about Slovenian, I'm not sure.

Similarities between Slavic languages often complement each other. Many words that are present in Russian, but not inPolish could be found in other Slavic languages such as Slovak or Slovenian.